As the Shorter Catechism states, “Man's chief end is to glorify God” (Q. 1). But how are we to glorify him? Most of us know that we should glorify God by singing psalms and hymns, praying, attending to the preaching of his Word, meditating on the wonderful atoning work of Jesus Christ, and obeying his commandments. However, few Christians realize that we should glorify God for the way he has preserved and maintained his church down through the years.

Tell Your Children⤒🔗

During the time when the Lord “brought [Israel] out of Egypt with a mighty hand” and “sent miraculous signs and wonders … upon Egypt and Pharaoh” (Deuteronomy 6:21, 22), he told Moses that he would “perform these miraculous signs … that you may tell your children and grandchildren … how I performed my signs … that you may know that I am the LORD” (Exodus 10:1).

When the Lord liberated his people from Egypt, he told them to celebrate this event with their children every year during the Passover. Obviously, the reason for this was to praise his name for this powerful deed! Moses understood the importance of this, and in his farewell address forty years later, he warned the Israelites to remember their deliverance by the mighty hand of the Lord, and to teach it to their children:

Do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart… Teach them to your children and to their children after them.Deuteronomy 4:9

The people would glorify God as they knew him as the God of the covenant.

The Lord revealed himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6). This implies that Moses and the Israelites knew their history at least back to the time of Abraham. They knew specifically of Joseph's wish to be reburied in Canaan (Exodus 13:19).

The Lord considered the Exodus so memorable for the church of all ages that he introduced himself in the preamble of the Ten Commandments, the ten words of the covenant, as the God who had brought his church out of the house of bondage. Every time this preamble is read today, the Lord comforts his people that he is the God who initially liberated his church, from Egypt and later led his church, many more times into the freedom of serving him properly! For example, he liberated his people from the slavery of the Roman Church during the Reformation, and he used J. Gresham Machen to free his people from the yoke of liberalism in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Should we not, with our children and grandchildren, praise him for these mighty deeds?

Memorials of God's Grace←⤒🔗

The Lord is a caring and gracious God, who knows how easily his people forget his goodness. For this reason he told the Israelites to erect signs to help them remember the highlights of the church's history. Joshua erected twelve stones as a memorial after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan.

When your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant.Joshua 4:6-7

Similarly, Samuel erected a stone and called it Ebenezer, so the repentant people would remember how the Lord had routed their enemies at the battle of Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:10-12).

In fact, the Lord himself provided an everlasting memorial by having the history of Israel recorded in the Bible. Thus, we cannot use ignorance as an excuse for not glorifying his name for what he did for the Old Testament church.

The Relevance of History←⤒🔗

Much of Old Testament history does not seem relevant to the atoning work of the coming Messiah or to Christian living in modern times. However, these very parts of the Old Testament are crucial in helping us understand the mighty actions of the Lord in dealing with his church. They make us stand in awe when we hear about his eternal care, his encouragements, his admonishments and punishments, his patience in calling, and many more features of his love for the church.

It is sometimes argued that the Lord's command to teach church history to our children is not applicable today because it is not repeated in the New Testament. However, this argument betrays an ignorance of the unity of the people of God in the covenant of grace. There are other important subjects not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, but accepted in the church because they are clearly implied by Scripture – e.g., infant baptism. The Holy Spirit did not repeat this well-known commandment because most members of the apostolic church were Jews who had been taught the Old Testament. Furthermore, both Jesus and his apostles quoted and referred to the Old Testament extensively, which implies that it was well known in the church.

The apostle Paul admonishes the New Testament church to sing “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19). The Psalms, in general, praise the Lord for what he has done for the church. The commandment to know and teach history was taught to new Christians by having them sing Psalm 78 (amongst others), in which Asaph declares,

We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.Psalm 78:4

The Holy Spirit clearly indicated the importance of church history by appointing Luke to record the history of the New Testament church. He investigated and verified, as a reliable reporter, the events surrounding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, and he himself observed much of apostolic church history. He understood the importance of recording the history of the church. The significance of his accurate historical writings cannot easily be overestimated.

History and Sound Doctrine←⤒🔗

There is an additional reason for studying church history. Paul writes to Timothy that the Scriptures (including the historical texts) are “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training” (2 Timothy 3:16). This is important because “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:3). Paul is even more specific in his first letter to the Corinthians. Referring to Israel's history, he writes that “these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us” (1 Corinthians 10:11). In other words, knowledge of church history is useful as a weapon against heresies.

We today should certainly listen to Paul, since we are frequently exposed to Arminianism, Arianism, and every other kind of “ism.” His warnings imply that church history needs to include the development of doctrines and should be accompanied by scriptural arguments against heresies.

Over the centuries, the church of Christ has experienced a large variety of different circumstances. There have been times of obedience and times of transgressions, times of strong spiritual life and times of worldliness, times of martyrdom and times of prosperity. There have been times when Christians knew the history of the Body of Christ thoroughly, as well as times when that glorious history has been forgotten.

It seems that we are now living in a time when the commandment of the Lord to study church history and to tell it to the children, is being neglected. It is not uncommon for even office-bearers, including ministers, to admit openly that they are not interested in church history. For them, church history is no more than a hobby for people who have nothing better to do.

Apostacy is nearly always the result of an unwillingness to study the Scriptures and/or neglecting to learn church history. Even today the warning of the prophet is valid: the Lord “will destroy your mother [i.e., the church] – my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:5-6). Is that, perhaps, the reason why so few biblical churches exist in the U.S.A. and why we are living in a “post-Christian” era?

It may be worthwhile to reevaluate our thinking concerning church history and begin teaching it as the Word of God requires. It should be possible to incorporate the study of church history in the curriculums of Sunday schools and Bible study groups. They would proclaim “the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27) better if in some of their meetings the Lord's name were glorified by discussing his wonderful ways in the history of his people.